Alongside the introduction of the new Tegra 4 SoC architecture, Nvidia tonight unveiled Project Shield, a codenamed, self-contained, Android-based portable game console capable of connecting to a local PC to run games.

The Shield, which appears to be about the size of an Xbox 360 controller, is a Tegra 4-powered clamshell portable that its creators are calling a "pure Android experience." That means it can be used for productivity and entertainment apps like a regular Android phone or tablet, but it can also used to play games using a "console class controller" that's uncovered when the screen is flipped up.

That controller features two analog sticks, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons, as well as standard Android buttons and an Nvidia button for accessing the company's "Tegra Zone" front-end of graphically intensive Android games. The system runs off three lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, charged via USB, that the creators say will provide 5 to 10 hours of gameplay, or longer for video playback. Internal storage can be expanded through a microSD card slot as well.

The other part of the fold-out design is a 720p "retinal display," complete with a custom bass reflex audio system that the company compared favorably to "an HP laptop with Beats audio." But the demo seemed more focused on showing off the system's ability to connect via HDMI to a 4K TV display, which showed impressive, large-scale, 3D Android-native games like Real Boxing and a version of beta free-to-play FPS Hawken, which supported multiplayer competition.

While the games almost definitely weren't being output in 4K, they still looked quite impressive on the big screen, especially considering the diminutive size of the portable system pumping out those graphics. The demo menu showed a selection of seven or so Android games that make use of the Shield's controller, but it's still unclear just how many Android games will natively support the controls, or whether the system conforms to any established standards used in other non-touchscreen Android games.

The Shield's most surprising feature, though, and one that has the potential to be a killer app for heavy PC gamers, is the ability to stream games from a nearby Windows box over a local network connection. After some technical hiccups, the demo unit was shown remotely operating games like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Assassin's Creed III running on a PC just off-stage, and displaying those games both on the portable screen and a connected TV.

The system could even operate Steam's "Big Picture" mode through the remote connection, giving the portable access to the PC's entire library of Steam games. Nvidia claims that the latency for this remote-play mode was practically unnoticeable, but as yet we've had no way to verify that claim. The Shield will also reportedly be able to play games remotely through Nvidia's much-discussed cloud-gaming Grid system.

There's still plenty we don't know about Nvidia's first foray into fully self-contained mobile gaming systems, price and availability timing chief among them, but it seems clear that the company is no longer satisfied to simply watch other hardware makers decide how best to use their portable graphics chips.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

The price is going to factor big into this. The PC streaming needs at least a GTX 650 while I have a 560ti for now.

It's so goddamn ugly and unlikely to be redesigned if it's out in Q2, but I really enjoyed using the Wii U tablet for playing away from the big screen. £200 or under and I'll have a big decision to make. Over that and it's a dealbreaker.

What's the size of the display on this thing? If it's smaller than the WiiU tablet (which it looks like it is), that's a downer. But even if it's not, it could be the 'harcore' gamer's WiiU clone and once again relegate Nintendo to the 'casual' and 'family friendly' market. With all the talk about the demise of Nvidia over the past few years, Nvidia looks like a company with surprisingly healthy, and diversified, future. Unless MS or Sony create their own WiiU clones and do a better job of it.

If it works well the ability to play PC games through this to your TV is a killer app for the Steam user base, it's really something Valve should have done in the first place instead of trying to make their own PC which isn't going to sell as Steam users already have one and consoles users don't want PC's.

Hopefully there is no specific hardware required it would be wise for Nvidia to make this work with any system.

I wish the article weren't so sparse in technical specs. Is it fully HDMI 1.4 compliant? I see the 4k blurb, but what about 3D?

Also, I'm trying to imagine how this HDMI-to-TV tethering set up will go. To me it screams awkward, considering that the unit is a handheld. Considering the normal American family room set up, will we be running 10-14 foot HDMI cables across the room to display it on the screen while sitting on the couch? That's very... 1998.

My TV is connected to my PC with a long HDMI cable and a wired 360 controller so I can use Big Picture mode. I would choose a Wii U over this, but the tech is cool. Kinda like a local version of OnLive.

I'm a PC gamer, and I don't really enjoy mobile gaming, but as this can link up to big picture mode.. on steam, it's basically all I need from a Steambox. This is some excellent innovation from Nvidia. I just hope it's nice to use.

By "five to ten hours" they mean... about five hours. Battery tech needs more focus, this is pathetic. It barely covers one car journey.

Considering what it's for and the screen it comes with that seems pretty good for a car trip, unless the purpose of the destination is to play that thing more. If it's got 3 Lithium batteries that's probably about 3600-4500 mAh of power depending on cells it uses.

You can also just carry a portable battery charger. I got a 12,000 mAh portable battery that's a little bigger than a Nintendo Gameboy SP that charges anything that recharges using USB (2A or 1A). I've used it to charge my EVO 3D, Zune HD, Sansa Clip, and my friend's iPad. I only regret that my Motorola Xoom only recharges using an AC adapter.

I wish the article weren't so sparse in technical specs. Is it fully HDMI 1.4 compliant? I see the 4k blurb, but what about 3D?

Also, I'm trying to imagine how this HDMI-to-TV tethering set up will go. To me it screams awkward, considering that the unit is a handheld. Considering the normal American family room set up, will we be running 10-14 foot HDMI cables across the room to display it on the screen while sitting on the couch? That's very... 1998.

I wouldn't be amazed to see this packing WiHD or similar.

(I'm fighting the impulse to say "screw the normal American family room set up", as I hate wireless console controllers in general anyway, and prefer really long wires, as things always run out of charge at the worst possible moment )

By "five to ten hours" they mean... about five hours. Battery tech needs more focus, this is pathetic. It barely covers one car journey.

The Vita can push 8 hours on a good number of games, and between 4-6 for modern games built specifically for the hardware (ie, not reworks of older PS2 games and similar), so 5-10 seems reasonable as an estimate, though I'd err more on the side of 5-7 than the higher 8-10 range as well.

If you told me in 2001, when I got my first cell phone, that a mobile phone's OS would ultimately start the decline of console gaming I would have laughed in your face. Android and possibly whatever Valve does, are going to tear down this market and rebuild it as highly affordable. Even more so than it already was for a long time in relation to PC gaming.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see this being the same experience as the Wii U at all. It sounds like this thing just streams games from the PC to the small screen or a connected TV. Wii U (when used well, which by no means is being done in all launch games) is all about the interaction between what's on the tablet controller and what's going on on your TV. It's about doing things like asymmetrical multiplayer with friends in the same room, or using the tablet as a viewfinder, or even just displaying your menus and inventory on the small screen so you don't have to pause the game every time you want to change your equipment. Even if this type of functionality is technically possible with this device, I can't see developers going out of their way to add Shield functionality to their PC games unless this thing is a massive runaway success.

It will also be interesting to see if all the Android-based hardware with physical controls that's being released this year will be enough to drive development of some serious console-style games for the platform. At least from my non-technical perspective, mobile CPU/GPU technology is getting close enough to current-gen consoles to be "good enough". But I can't think of a single Android game that would make me consider going out and buying a dedicated stand-alone Android gaming system at this point. Maybe all of these devices together will sell enough units that some developers will start making deeper, more involved Android games that require physical controls (or porting console titles to the platform).

It looks like an unwieldy POS. The controller is reminiscent of the"Hamburger" sized original X-Box model. It has a nice screen I guess but resolution in this case is everything. The screen being on the front like that would also be heavy on the hands after extended play time I would imagine. It is a terrible design over all. The streaming feature is interesting but does make up for the horrible design. I predict a huge fail.﻿

Personally I see this as a value-destroying move by NVidia with inherent conflicts of interest that would best be resolved by paring off this new gaming device as a separate business.

Not sure why this has received so many downvotes. Although I don't agree with all the assertions made (Xbox didn't "kill off windows gaming" any more than any other consoles/tablets/phones) you can't deny that by launching a new platform in the consumer space, Nvidia is going to be pitting themselves head to head with companies that are currently customers for their chips.

You could argue that MS has made the same mistake with Surface, risking their relationships with third party manufacturers that traditionally were one of (if not the) major source of their revenues.

As an end user though, I have to admit it's quite exciting to see the current moves to greater vertical integration amongst these giants of tech. Reminds me a bit of the crazy variety of hardware/software platforms we had in the 8-bit and 16-bit era of pre-PC dominance, which could make for quite exciting times ahead.

If you told me in 2001, when I got my first cell phone, that a mobile phone's OS would ultimately start the decline of console gaming I would have laughed in your face. Android and possibly whatever Valve does, are going to tear down this market and rebuild it as highly affordable. Even more so than it already was for a long time in relation to PC gaming.

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I think it's fair to throw Apple/iOS in there as well, even if they don't seem interested in connecting iOS devices to TVs anytime soon.

My only gripe about this thing would be the wired connection. There's no way around it (yet), so it's not a fair gripe, but I can't imagine stringing an HDMI cable across my living room. I'd also worry too much about the port itself.

I think it's fair to throw Apple/iOS in there as well, even if they don't seem interested in connecting iOS devices to TVs anytime soon.

uh, what? iOS has been connecting to TVs through airplay and the AppleTV for ages now; you're able to mirror games (and other apps) that support it onto the big screen. Many will even go a step beyond just mirroring and change the display on the handheld device to reflect just the controls or extra content, sort of like a Wii-U.

Apple could do a lot more to encourage developers to take advantage of this functionality, certainly, but it's baked right into iOS.

I'm skeptical. This is yet another service to stream games over your wireless connection, even though that's a bad idea. I'm sure the locally run Android games will be fine, but running basically a VNC of Call of Duty from your PC over the wireless is going to be disappointing.

The HDMI out is talked about a lot here, but traditionally has never been more than a gimmick on handhelds because who wants to string HDMI cables around?

The Shield's most surprising feature, though, and one that has the potential to be a killer app for heavy PC gamers, is the ability to stream games from a nearby Windows box over a local network connection.

I don't see this as a killer feature. This device will likely cost a minimum of $250 and give you the ability to stream your PC to your TV screen.

You can just use an HDMI cable and connect your PC directly for $5. No matter what you can't beat the simple cable for latency/reliability.

So I don't see that as a killer app. More of an interesting novelty feature.

Though this is an interesting device, showing NVidia thinking out of the box.